Monday 18 April 2022, 8pm
Please note that Thurston Moore can no longer perform at this show. Instead, we're delighted to welcome Alex Ward in his place.
Dave Tucker / guitar & electronices
Alex Ward / guitar
Pat Thomas / piano & keys
Mark Sanders / drums & perc
Dave Tucker says that he brought this disparate group of musicians together for a live performance at London’s Cafe Oto last March on “an educated guess,” predicting that the artists—Mark Sanders (Drums & Percussion), Pat Thomas (Piano & Keys), Dave Tucker (Guitar) and Thurston Moore (Guitar)—would be able to create something extraordinary through improvisation. The condition of their encounter would later become the collective’s name, an “Educated Guess” and the eponymous title of their first release, the first installment of a two-part volume. The album is another experiment in chance: an eclectic composition of spontaneous performance, layering guitars over complex, sometimes-scattered drum arrangements, and punctuating the noise with distinctive electronic manipulation.
Demonstrating their different backgrounds, UK improvised music heroes Thomas and Sanders, already on a few 577 Records’ releases, join forces with UK-based guitarist Tucker (a longtime collaborator with The Fall, Alan Tomlinson & Louis Moholo) and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth to create something deeply inventive and experimental, pushing the boundary of noise music towards a complicated, dissonant electronica. The album, released online and on vinyl, will be available on April 2nd, 2021 and Vol2 will be available from April 2022
Dave Tucker is originally performed in the late 70's Manchester Punk scene with Mellatron who released a record in 1978. between 1980-81, performed and recorded the legendary "Slates" with The Fall. Since the mid 80's, has been resident in London and has performed and recorded with amongst others, Evan Parker, John Stevens, Johnny Dyani, Mick Beck, Phillip Wachsmann, Barre Phillips, Otomo Yoshide. Also a long time menber of Alan Tomlinson Trio, Scatter with Pat Thomas, Phil Minton and Roger Turner as well as being a long time guitarist and conductor with London Improvisers Orchestra. He has written and performed music for film and TV, including BBC and channel 4 which won the rory peck ward.
Pat Thomas studied classical piano from aged 8 and started playing Jazz from the age of 16. He has since gone on to develop an utterly unique style - embracing improvisation, jazz and new music. He has played with Derek Bailey in Company Week (1990/91) and in the trio AND (with Noble) – with Tony Oxley’s Quartet and Celebration Orchestra and in Duo with Lol Coxhill.
"Sartorially shabby as Thomas may be, and on first impression even rather stolid, he has a somewhat imperious charisma that’s immediately amplified when he starts to play. Unlike other pianists whose virtuosity seems to be racing ahead of their thought processes Thomas always seems supremely in command of his gift, and his playing, no matter how free and ready to tangle with abstraction, always carries a charge of authoritative exactitude." - The Jazzmann
Mark has worked with many greats of the British, European and American free jazz improvised music scene including Roscoe Mitchell, Roswell Rudd, Evan Parker, John Butcher, Henry Grimes, Elaine Mitchener, Wadada Leo Smith, Myra Melford, Charles Gayle , Sirone and William Parker
He has also played with Jah Wobble, Harold Budd, Bill Laswell, Christian Marclay, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ilan Volkov and The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
He is a member of many working groups including duos with Nicole Mitchell and Rhodri Davies, Neil Charles' 'Dark Days' with Cleveland Watkiss & Pat Thomas, 'Last Dream of the Morning' with John Butcher & John Edwards, 'Shifa' with Rachel Musson and Pat Thomas and 'Sarost' with Larry Stabbins & Paul Rogers.
As an educator he has taught improvisation at many universities around the country as a lecturer and guest tutor.
Mark has played concerts and festivals around the world and appears on over 220 CD and Vinyl releases.
Mark was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists 2024
"Drop the needle on the first track — or any track for that matter — and the first thing one is bound to notice is the amazing percussion skills of Mark Sanders" – Peter Thelen... Exposé
"Mark is just incredible and immensely diverse, he is at the center of "Kwingyaw" and it is difficult to tell what he is doing to get some of these sounds." – Bruce L Gallenter, Downtown Music Gallery, NY
